Professional Lighting Designers’ Association
Application Guidance Notes
1. Notes on Submission:
All applicants should read these notes carefully. These guidance notes
are intended to improve the applicant’s possibility of being accepted at
the preferred grade and importantly, to speed up the approval process.
Applications for Student, Educator and affiliate grades are reviewed
by Head Office and are normally processed within four weeks.
Applications for other grades, i.e., Professional, Associate and Design
Member are assessed by a minimum of four peer reviewers, usually
in four separate countries. For practical reasons, applications are
reviewed within a quarterly period. Deadlines are: 01 January,
01 April, 01 July and 01 October.
Reviews normally take a minimum of 12 weeks, longer if the
information in these guidance notes is not adhered to, so a candidate
submitting an application by, say, the 01 April deadline should expect
a decision by 01 July.

These guidance notes are in six parts:
1. This section – Notes on Submission, detailing information which
the applicant is required to submit. All candidates should read this
section.
2. Format, detailing the required format of the documentation to
be provided. Only Professional & Associate candidates need
read this section.
3. Documentation, detailing the content and nature of documents,
drawings and photographs to be submitted. Only Professional &
Associate candidates need read this section.
4. Guidance on Upgrading Membership
5. Guidance on Transferring Membership
6. Checklist, providing a reminder for all candidates prior to
sending in application.

Applicants must provide:
– Completed application form, signed;
– Copy of educational degree / diploma (if relevant);
– Recent photograph of applicant;
– Full curriculum vitae / resumé (except Student)
Complete all parts of the form. Provide one completely
documented project.
In addition to completely documented project, provide two abridged projects.
Provide career update plus two abridged projects.
– Details of your current employer and your job title;
– Your educational qualifications.
– Details of course on which presently enrolled, eventual qualification gained,
course completion date and brief description of subjects studied.
– Details of educational establishment(s) with which you are affiliated and course(s) taught.
– Details of your current employers and job description.
– Details of your current / previous employers and job description.
– Details of your current / previous employers and job description.
– Details of magazine(s) and journal(s) to which you have contributed in the last two years;
– Details of your current employer, or indicate if self-employed / freelance.

2. Format:
Language: The application and all documentation should be provided
in English. This will enable all reviewers in all countries to assess
submissions. Exceptions are allowed, for instance, purely technical
information on drawings and schedules, but all other text should be
provided in English. If this is not possible for any reason, it will be
necessary to obtain translations from Head Office and /or conduct an
interview with the candidate. In either event, the standard application
review period of three months cannot be assured.
Electronic documents: Provide all documentation electronically,
preferably in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. If you do not have access
to Acrobat Writer software, it is still better to provide electronic
documentation which can be written to PDF format by Head Office.
Electronic documents speed up the process as they can be distributed
to membership reviewers in different countries quickly and can be
copied and reviewed simultaneously.

Hard copy documents: If it is not possible to provide documentation
electronically, supply hard-copies in the following format (only):
Drawings: A3 format (or A4 if appropriate); Documents: A3 or A4
Photographs: up to A3. The candidate should note that the safe return
of documents cannot be guaranteed, especially where these are sent
between different countries for review. Valuable images and drawings
etc. are sent at the applicant’s risk.

3.0 Documentation:
General: Provide information in a concise format. Do not provide more
information than requested; submission of unnecessary information will
slow down the review process.

3.1 Completely documented project
Written description: In no more than 200 words, describe your client’s
brief, project conditions, goals and aspirations. Detail your interpretation
including how you believe you met this brief and project challenges or
limitations. Provide details of the client’s name, project partners, project
size and approximate cost of the lighting installation specified.
Concept documentation: Can be in the form of: Sketches and
hand-drawings; Presentation material, i.e., cut-sheets, renders, artwork,
PowerPoint slides; Written descriptions, narrative; Photographs of
mock-ups etc.
Lighting design drawings: Provide no more than six supporting
drawings unless absolutely necessary to illustrate project. These can be:
Layout drawings (plans with equipment positions); Detail drawings
(particular design details / luminaires used etc.); Sections or elevations.
Equipment schedule: Detailing luminaires supplied for the project.
The schedule should illustrate the designer’s understanding of the
equipment specified including physical characteristics, lamp type,
control gear and line-voltage etc.
Control information: For simple schemes, or where appropriate, circuit
lines on layout drawings will be sufficient. For larger or more sophisticated schemes, a full control schedule would be expected, demonstrating
the designer’s understanding of channels /zoning, scene-setting and
equipment specified.
Lighting calculations: If applicable and prepared for project. For
example, hand-prepared estimates to computer isolux plots and renders.
Completed project images: Photos must be a true representation of
the scheme. They do not need to be of professional quality. If fill lighting
has been used or the photograph has been manipulated or enhanced,
this should be noted with submission. There is no minimum or maximum
number of images, but as a guide, the candidate should provide
between three and six photos, depending on the project size.
Publications: The candidate should note that publications and articles
are not necessary for submission with their application, but if these are
available either describing a project submitted for review or demonstrating the candidates’ professional competence in any aspect, then publications may help the review process.

3.2 Abridged Project
Written description: 200 word maximum written description as
described under ‘completely documented projects’.
Completed Project Images: Between (approximately) three and six
photographs as described under ‘completely documented projects’.

Head Office

4. Upgrading membership:
To upgrade from Design member to Associate of Professional member,
please submit a new and complete application form and provide all
documents required for the grade to which you wish to upgrade.
To upgrade from Student member to Design member please provide
a new and complete application form.
To transfer or upgrade from an Affiliate grade to any other grade,
a new and complete application is required.
To upgrade from Associate member to Professional member please
submit an application form including the date at which you were awarded
Associate membership under ‘Additional Information’ in section 3.0 of
the form and material as described for two abridged projects only.
Note: All Affiliates except Educators must re-apply for continuing
membership after two years if they have not applied to transfer or
upgrade to another grade.

5. Transferring membership
Corporate Members of IALD may apply for Professional grade in the
Professional Lighting Designers’ Association by completing a membership form in full and providing one completely documented project.
Other grades of IALD membership will be required to apply with full
documentation as required for the grade to which they are applying.
Full voting members of ACE may apply for Professional grade in the
Professional Lighting Designers’ Association by completing a membership form in full and providing one completely documented project.
Other grades of ACE membership will be required to apply with full
documentation as required for the grade to which they are applying.
Full members of other Lighting Design associations should provide
full details of the membership requirements for their association to
Head Office for advice on possible relaxations in gaining membership
at a similar grade in the Professional Lighting Designers’ Association.

6.Checklist:
Ensure that you have provided the information / documentation listed
on page one of these Guidance Notes.

7. Membership categories and annual fees
Voting:
Fellow: (no fee)
Professional / Associate: € 260 (owner of an independent practice)
€ 155 (employed in an independent practice)
Non-voting:
Student: € 26
Design member: € 260 (owner of an independent practice)
€ 155 (employed in an independent practice or upgraded directly from
Student membership as membership fee for the first year)
Affiliate grades with the exception of Educators (Coordinator /
Allied / Commercial / Press): € 260. All Affiliate grades are required
to reapply for membership after two years.
Affiliate (Educator): € 260 (owner of an independent practice),
€ 155 (employed by a university)
Circle of Sponsors: company membership for a minimum of three
years. One annual fee as a special donation on joining plus three
further annual fees (see Agreement).